WaterSki Magazine

Kristin
2009-05-13 15:00:00 | 281 views | 0 Comments

It may have taken him 15 years to make, but Bill Scharpf has finally made his water ski movie. It wasn’t easy, and it certainly wasn’t fast, but he did it. Don’t be mistaken; however, it’s not an inspirational, 60ish-minute, “behind-the-scenes” series of segments that center around pro slalom rippers set to a rousing soundtrack. No, it’s a real, honest-to-goodness movie with actors, a script, pre- and post-production and a theater release date. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Scharpf didn’t always want to be a moviemaker. In fact, the thought may have never even crossed his mind if it weren’t for a series of life events and opportunities that each brought him one step closer to his present-day, big-screen dreams.

WaterSki: Where did your love for skiing start?
Bill Scharpf: It started as a recreational thing. I kind of grew up like a modern-day Huck Finn in the late ’70s and early ’80s on the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and a lot of my friends had boats. One of my first jobs was working at the La Crosse boat harbor in the summers. I’d water ski on my breaks and, you know, I was on the river the whole time.

WS: You live in Florida now. Tell me about your transition from Wisconsin to the Sunshine State.
BS: In my high school years, I skied with the River City Waterski Show Team, and we did water ski shows on the river. A fellow club member skied for the Tommy Bartlett Show. He got me an audition, and I got a job the next summer. I went to ski there and I forgot to re-register for school. I just totally forgot! So, since college was out of the picture, the next summer I headed back to ski at Tommy Bartlett’s and was offered a full-time position at SeaWorld. I moved down to Orlando in October 1987 and started skiing full time.

WS: How did your show skiing evolve into doing stunts?
BS: I was show skiing at SeaWorld until the spring of ’90, when my father-in-law saw an advertisement in the paper that SeaWorld was hiring stunt boat drivers, so I auditioned and got that job. That’s really what got me into the entertainment and stunt business.

WS: You went from being a Midwestern show skier to a SeaWorld and Hollywood stuntman. Where does directing fit into all this?
BS: Being a stuntman is a great job — you show up, do your thing and go home. I have over 200 credits in movies and TV to my name, but I wanted the experience of being part of the full process. So that was the goal I set, to make H2O Extreme. If I wanted anything out of this movie, it was to make the skiing believable. I have some of the best skiers in the world in the movie: Keith St. Onge, Andre de Villier, Geno Yauchler, Zane Schwenk, Tino Santori and Pete Kuhlman. Plus, the Cypress Gardens water ski team helped us out a lot. They were my background the whole time.

WS: Let’s rewind back to the birth of your movie. Where did the idea come from?
BS: It was back in ’94, while working at SeaWorld, that my friend said someone should make a water ski movie. I asked who would write it, and he suggested I should. I had no writing experience at all, but I sat down, started typing and ended up with 60 pages of total disarray. It was a totally disorganized story — no character development, just words. I put it away for six years. In 2000, another friend, who had written a screenplay, helped me develop the first real draft of the script. We shopped it in Hollywood, but they didn’t think it would have an audience, so it never got made. And so I put it away again for another few years. In 2006, I decided I was going to make a movie no matter what, and I figured I’d do what I know and H2O Extreme was the movie to make.

WS: How does stunt work compare to directing? Is it hard to step out of the shot and behind the camera?
BS: It’s definitely not as fun! It was challenging, beyond what I ever imagined. You’re dealing with everyone involved in the film. Learning how to deal with people and managing people is very different from what I’ve had to do in the past.

WS: There are a lot of water sports in the movie, but no real three-event skiing.
BS: No, there is no real three-eventing in there. I did have Russell Gay come and do a phenomenal trick pass for me at the end of the movie, but it’s mostly barefooting, wakeboarding, hydrofoiling and freestyle jumping. It’s really a show ski film, though. It’s what I know best. They say to write what you know — and I did.

WS: Where did you come up with the name of the movie?
BS: The first title was Extreme Choices. That was back in 2000. The word extreme is way overdone — so ’90s — but I couldn’t find a better title, and it turned into H20 Extreme. I kicked a bunch of different names around, but nothing else rang a bell, so that’s what we went with.

WS: You’ve been pretty busy lately with your movie. Do you get any time to ski recreationally?
BS: I have a ’96 Malibu that I bought brand-new that sits in my backyard with 170 hours on it. Clearly, I don’t get that much free time to ski. My in-laws and wife have a serious alligator phobia, so it’s hard to get them in the lake. Kind of a funny thing — you meet your future spouse and it’s amazing how they love to do everything you love to do, and then suddenly … not so much. She’ll pull me, but it’s no fun skiing by yourself.

WS: So when will the film be released?
BS: There isn’t a set date quite yet. We’re going to do a special event release, at the very least. We’ll pick a certain date and marry up theaters with big ski clubs or populations so we know we’ll have the attendance. We’ll be in all the big markets — North Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, towns in Wisconsin where there are show ski clubs, Detroit, Central Florida and Denver.

WS: Any chance the tournament in the movie can translate to real life?
BS: We’re actually trying to brand H2O Extreme, because, eventually, I’m trying to have a real competition. I want to do it like a pro tour — with wakeboarding, freestyle jump, barefoot, hydrofoil and wake skis — and figure out a program where they have to compete all around to get the title of best overall skier. I’m going to try to make it happen, but with the economy right now, there are no sponsor dollars available. Maybe next summer it’ll work out. If the movie does well, I’ll put up the money myself for the tournament.

WS: Any advice for anyone wanting to make a movie?
BS: It depends on what their objective is. I don’t think it should just be a plain water ski movie with scenery, though. It should be an actual movie, with a script and a plot. Anyone could go out and shoot a video and edit it on their Mac computer. There’s nothing wrong with that, but understand there is a lot of commitment and time involved. I guarantee that 80 percent of people who start don’t finish. They don’t realize what it takes or the time it takes. It’s really hard work.

Cast Interview
Actor John Schneider –you may know him as Jonathon Kent from Smallville or Bo Duke from the original Dukes of Hazzards – plays Crash in H2O Extreme. Here, he talks about his role, the movie and his long-lasting respect for the sport.

What was it like being in such a different element from your typical roles?
It was great. Especially because all of the folks that are in the movie and actually doing the water skiing are the best on the planet, you know. It was exciting for me. I can’t believe the things that they do on the water, and how comfortable they are doing it. How strong they are, how they can fly through the air like they do and land with incredible force and ease, and just pop back up. It’s really quite amazing. I enjoyed that the most. I like to see excellence in motion. There’s no denying it, especially when the director would say “I need you to go out and land, and make it look like you’re going to fall and correct yourself,” it’s hard to make an intentional mistake, and correct yourself, so they really blew me away everyday, everything that they did.

Did you do work on the water?
No, I did work in the air and I did work in a boat. I’m the owner of the establishment and the retired water ski guy. I don’t actually water ski in the movie, or in life. John Schneider does not water ski. I don’t mean it by saying “no I don’t water ski ’cause I don’t like it,” I mean I don’t know how. I tried way back when and I would get up and it would be great until we did that turn and there is something in the middle of the turn called the whip effect and I never survived it. I never got through the whip effect.

Describe your role.
Not to give anything away, let’s just say that I work there, at Cypress Gardens. I play a guy who is really so in love with water skiing and water skiers, and Para gliders, the whole thing. He used to work at the ski showcase at Cypress Gardens, and it appears that he’s just worked there for the past 30 years…let’s just say he loves the sport a lot. It’s a great story.

Did you talk to pro skiers to prepare you for the role?
We had a lot of pro skiers on the set. Also, my mom is from not far from there – Sanford – and every summer we would visit where she was from, and we would go every year to Cypress Gardens. So, I didn’t really have to go talk to anybody about what the sport was about. I’d been to the Gardens many times growing up, so it was cool. I was relatively connected to what the sport was about. I really enjoy it there.

What was it like working with the pro skiers?
It was terrific. As I said, it defies all logic what they do out there, these folks are really doing things that they make look so easy. But when you are here all day for a couple of weeks, you realize that a mistake could really seriously injure or kill somebody. It’s because they are so good that it looks so possible. It’s like watching Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly dance. You think: “That’s simple, I can do that.” But you don’t realize how hard it is. They go out and have fun, but their silliness goes away and their game face shows up and then you really realize that these guys aren’t just good – there’s a difference, a huge difference, between people who are good, and those that are the best in the world. These guys are the best, you can tell that when you are there. I’m anxious to see the final product. I’ve only seen snippets of it. I want to see if the incredible nature of what these folks do is translated on film. I enjoyed it a lot.

Why’d you decided to work on this movie?
They called me about it, and I wanted to go spend some time back where my mother was from, and I really enjoy watching people who are exceptionally good at things, and he had told me that these were going to be the best of the best skiers. It wasn’t just going to be a water ski movie, it was going to be the water ski movie. That’s exciting to me, so I went down and enjoyed it so much that I can’t wait to see the movie. I didn’t take up water skiing though! ::laughs:: You’ve gotta know your limitations!

Bill Scharpf’s been working on this film for well over a decade. What was it like to work with someone so passionate about the subject matter?
Well, he’s somebody who’s done it. I believe that he’s worked in this industry a long time. He wasn’t just somebody who was passionate about the sport, he was somebody who had been there, who had done it and was very good at it. That was exciting because that lends an air of authenticity. He could ask folks to do things that I don’t think anybody else could do. He’d be very specific, and the actors would do it. He was not just a director – a director is one thing, but a director that knows the camera and the sport is a double threat, and I think would wind up putting out an exceptional movie, and I’m sure that’s what this is.

Will this movie be for water sport fans or everyone?
I think it’ll offer something for everybody. My role is this guy who took this on, doesn’t make any money, but does it because he loves the sport. I think there’s a “Go for it” message in the movie that I think is important in any time, not just in this economical time. So I think it’s not just for water skiers, but if you are a skier, you’re going to love it. It brings to mind, the Lords of Dogtown. I’m not a skateboarder at all, but I love that movie. I don’t think you have to be a water skier to enjoy this film.